Category Archives: Egypt

Struggling to Make Sense of Syria and Egypt

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A man prepares the bodies of those killed in last Wednesday's attack east of Damascus, Syria. [Credit: NY Daily News]

A man pre­pares the bod­ies of those killed in last Wednes­day’s attack east of Dam­as­cus, Syr­ia. [Cred­it: NY Dai­ly News]

Sarin vic­tims often first feel its tox­ic effects in their eyes.  They water and ache. Vision is blurred. Pupils con­tract to a pin­point. The nox­ious gas also affects the lungs, with chest tight­ness, cough and rapid breath­ing among the com­mon symp­toms. Then there are the car­dio­vas­cu­lar effects. The heart may race or sud­den­ly slow down. Blood pres­sure can spike or pre­cip­i­tous­ly drop. Nau­sea, vom­it­ing and abdom­i­nal pain are among its gas­troin­testi­nal con­se­quences. Its effects on the cen­tral ner­vous sys­tem include con­fu­sion, drowsi­ness and headache. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

How Washington Changed Obama

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Washington has changed the President's hair color, as it has with his predecessors. But the changes run deeper. [Credit: Post Chronicle]

Wash­ing­ton has changed the Pres­i­den­t’s hair col­or, as it did his pre­de­ces­sors’. But the changes it has made in him run deep­er. [Cred­it: Post Chronicle]

“So eight years ago, I came here to deliv­er the com­mence­ment address for the class of 2005. Things were a lit­tle dif­fer­ent back then. For exam­ple, I had no gray hair. Or a motor­cade. Didn’t even have a prompter.”

Pres­i­dent Oba­ma, Knox Col­lege, Gales­burg (IL), July 24, 2013

Many things have changed in the eight years that elapsed between Pres­i­dent Obama’s two Gales­burg address­es. But per­haps none of those things has changed as pro­found­ly as he. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Egypt: It’s Not About Democracy

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Protesters crowded Tahrir Square in Cairo earlier this month to call for their President's ouster. The military obliged them. [Credit: Washington Times]

Pro­test­ers crowd­ed Tahrir Square in Cairo ear­li­er this month to call for their Pres­i­den­t’s ouster. The mil­i­tary oblig­ed them.  Is that the tri­umph of democ­ra­cy or just a mil­i­tary coup?  [Cred­it: Wash­ing­ton Times]

The Oba­ma pres­i­den­cy, now well into its fifth year, seems as flum­moxed by glob­al devel­op­ments as it did in its first. Egypt pro­vides the most recent exam­ple. Con­tin­ue read­ing →